Now that our smartphones can not only search the web for us but also predict the fastest route to work, how do info pros set themselves apart from anyone with access to Google? This full-day workshop looks at what is innovative, creative, and digitally transforming in advanced web search, research, and analysis. Searchers Academy allows you to interact with a series of industry experts who share their ideas and expertise in the field of research on the web and in social media. There’s always something new to be learned from these leading-edge info pros. Participants should have basic experience with web searching, but even searchers with an extensive searching background will come away with a new attitude and new resources and tools for more effective and strategic searching. Expect to have your assumptions challenged about effective search techniques, strategies, and approaches. Academy topics include the following:

Libraries require appropriate technology in order to best fulfill their strategic missions. They invest in many types of tools for managing their collections, enabling discovery for patrons, and fulfilling access in the most efficient way. As the proportions of electronic and digital content continue to increase, libraries need to align their technology infrastructure. In this half-day workshop, Breeding outlines some of the types of technology products and services available to help libraries face these challenges. The workshop focuses on the issues raised by the attendees to help guide their development of technology strategies which best serve their organizations.

Immerse yourself in the tech of the future. Understand what artificial intelligence is, what it means for our communities, and how we can use it to engage our members and customers. Hear about the challenges and opportunities as well as the resources you can check out to learn more and share with your colleagues.

Our UX designers focus on strategy, research, and prototyping designs, but what they love most is sitting down with users to understand their thoughts, feelings, and frustrations. Join these successful practitioners in a hands-on intensive skills-building experience, an opportunity to apply the skills you learn during the session. Gain an understanding of what user experience is, its value, and how it is applied across industries and communities. Get a foundational understanding of the UX process and key deliverables that UX designers create. Learn to evaluate and prioritize business and user requirements in the design process. Develop skills in the use and application of UX activities through a hands-on interactive exercise. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), including your own laptop and sketching materials (sketchbook, notepad, pencil, pen, etc.).

Life online presents many risks: to privacy, safety, relationships, reputations, and resources. These risks apply both to us personally as well as our organizations and customers. In this workshop, we explore the most important aspects of cybersecurity that your information organization should have in place. Using the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Cybersecurity Framework as our reference point, you learn what tools, procedures, standards, and processes you should implement to protect the data of your organization, staff, and customers. At the end of the workshop, you will have a toolkit of resources and information that you can apply immediately to make your organization and people more secure online. Become more cybersecurity savvy so you can be the expert in your community!

Whether you already have a makerspace or are ready to start developing one, this workshop by a library makerspace pioneer is loaded with ideas and strategies to move you forward. Filled with tips and techniques, our experienced speaker gives you all you need to get started with a makerspace in your area and to move it into an engaging customer problem-solving and learning space! Building a STEM learning or entrepreneurship program alongside a makerspace to explore new community engagement possibilities is exciting and rewarding. Full of practical tips and tricks this workshop provides a road map for building or taking your makerspace to the next level. It also discusses the challenges such as dealing with tech and funding, presents real-world examples, and inspires you with the impact of their initiatives.

The concept of project management is becoming more widely adopted in libraries and recognized as one of the major skills necessary for the 21st century. Is it working for you, your ideas, your initiatives, your projects? Set yourself up for success by utilizing accessible techniques for initiating a project and bringing it to closure. Attendees share a basic vocabulary, an understanding of project management processes, and how to identify roles in the organization essential for project success. With many libraries beyond the basics, the presenter adjusts workshop content as needed to support the challenges faced by the accidental and intentional project managers in attendance. Pick up lots of tips and tools, and “plan” to have fun!

Getting things done in our fast paced and changing world is critical and facilitation skills are a “must have” for everyone. This interactive and fun half-day workshop demonstrates how to use visualization and drawing techniques to communicate and solve problems. Following the principles laid out in Dan Roam’s classic book, The Back of the Napkin, this workshop tackles how to clarify complex ideas with simple images. This kind of drawing is not about creating art, it is about thinking differently. The next time you are facing a challenging issue, you will have the skills and courage to pick up the marker, step up to the flip chart, and get drawing!

There are many models and techniques for planning, and we’ve all used a number of them. But how do we make those plans come alive? How do we get our staff and communities moving ahead to realize those plans? Implementation is where the rubber meets the road and is fraught with challenges. Our consultant has worked with many types of libraries to implement their plans. Get strategies, techniques, and lots of tips to push your plans along in your organization.

How do we design for changing technologies and flexible smart spaces? How do we incorporate new gadgets, apps, and technologies to engage our communities? Get some insights and ideas for planning for the future for successful user library experiences.

Looking for new and usability-tested ways to maximize your library website’s user engagement? Join our experienced information scientist and usability pro who has more than 20 years’ worth of qualitative and quantitative info from her professional usability studies. Grab actionable tips (with before-and-after examples) that you can apply to your library site right away! Get an in-depth look at creating effective visual hierarchies using color, fonts/typefaces, scan ability elements, placement, white space, and other proven ways to influence eye-tracking on web pages. This interactive workshop for all types of libraries and schools provides useful tools and handy checklists to help you keep users engaged with your website content without annoying them.

Technology has changed the face of libraries and is continuing to change how we work and how we deliver services to customers. This workshop introduces emerging technology trends and shows how those trends are reshaping library services. Examples are provided of how to incorporate these evolving trends into libraries. Attendees learn what trends to look for, find out the difference between a technology trend and a fad, and get ideas on how their library can respond to technology as it emerges.

This half-day workshop, presented by early adopters and library practitioners, shares what it takes to start a community program based around augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). During the workshop, participants gain an appreciation of the history of this bleeding-edge technology, and learn how all the basic hardware/software components work to create engaging experiences in your library and far beyond it. An HTC Vive, Microsoft HoloLens, Google Cardboard, a DIY hologram viewer, and other technologies are present, so participants have an opportunity to play with all the latest and greatest AR/ VR technologies as well as identify opportunities to use these technologies in their communities.

With the growing ocean of data, from Big Data to Small Data, to analytics, usage statistics, and search logs, we are awash in the data tide. Learn tactics, techniques, and tools for adding meaning to data for your library patrons, community leaders, students, faculty, researchers, and administrators. Visualization tools explored range from standalone apps to spreadsheet plug-ins to data websites. Explore tools and techniques for visualizing a variety of data using infographics, word clouds, simple pie charts, maps, Gantt charts, timelines, and many other charts and diagrams.

As a library’s web portal is the virtual gateway to its web-based resources and services, it is essential that libraries engage users in usability testing to ensure positive and productive experiences with the site. Successful information architecture, smooth site navigation, logical menu structure, and intuitive interface design all rely on knowing where users expect to find needed information. Card-sorting is a simple, user-centered, and powerful technique that can explore how user groups related concepts together, and help web designers develop a usable website architecture and sensible navigation paths that better reflect user mental models. By applying think-aloud protocol, web practitioners can test the overall performance of a website structure. Through workshop exercises, attendees have an opportunity to develop and articulate usability initiatives engaging users at their respective institutions.